


Read Between the Lines

by torigates



Category: Bones (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2018-01-01 03:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brennan knows Booth, but sometimes she forgot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Read Between the Lines

“My dad drank.”

Brennan didn’t reply right away. She wasn’t sure what exactly to say. It came as a shock to her, even after what Cam and Sweets had told her. She hadn’t believed it. She didn’t _want_ to believe it. Logically she knew that Booth had once been a child. Anthropologically she knew that most people had a difficult time growing up. But she had never applied those two facts to Booth before. Brennan knows Booth, but sometimes she forgot.

Booth had always been so private about his past. Everyone knew that Tempe Brennan was abandoned by her family. That her father was a criminal, her mother was dead. Brennan realised she knew almost nothing about Booth, because she had just never asked. Booth was just Booth, and that was all that had ever mattered to her, and somehow Brennan allowed herself to forget that. To forget Booth.

“He used to get,” Booth paused. “He used to get mean. I tried to protect Jared from that. I guess I never really stopped.”

Brennan knew she didn’t always understand people, but this time she could read between the lines. She had enough experience with ‘mean’ foster parents to know what that meant. To know there was nothing Booth ever could have done. She also knew Booth would never accept that.

“He’s an adult now, Booth.”

“I know,” Booth said. “I know that. But he’s still my little brother. He’s _family_ , Bones. Do you think Russ ever stopped thinking of you as his little sister?”

“No,” she said. She wasn’t sure if she’d even want him to.

They’re quiet for a while. Brennan only ever understood people in the theoretical sense of the word. She understood culture, facts, anthropology. She’d always been a person who needed evidence, and somehow she let herself forget that when she listened to what Jared had to say about Booth, instead of what she knew for herself to be true.

“I’m sorry, Booth,” Brennan said.

“What?”

“I’m sorry. I never thought you were a loser.”

Brennan knew it was a lie she had to tell, because she had. She had doubted Booth, even if it only was for that one moment, even if she hated herself for it. Booth puts his hand on her knee. It was big and warm and made Brennan feel protected. Booth always made her feel protected, and she had betrayed that.

“I’m sorry you got shot,” Booth said, protecting her again. Forgiving her. Being her partner, and it made Brennan feel so much better and so much worse to know that Booth never waivered in his belief in her. He was there. He was always there.

“It’s not your fault, Booth.”

“I shouldn’t have let that happen. You’re my partner, I should have made sure you were safe.”

“Booth—” Brennan wanted to tell him about all the times he made her feel safe just by being there, but she didn’t know what to say, and Booth probably wouldn’t listen if she did.

“I’m sorry you got shot,” he said again, and Brennan thought it was more than just a bullet wound, that it was Booth’s way of saying that no matter what she said or didn’t say he would be there.

Brennan paused. “It’s okay. I’m sorry you had to kill someone,” she said and that was here way of saying, ‘I’ll be here too.’

They sat in silence with Booth’s hand on her knee and Brennan thought about what that meant. What _they_ meant.

“You’re not Booth lite,” she told him.

“What?” he asked startled.

“Angela. She said that you were the real Booth, and that Jared was Booth lite.”

Booth looked puzzled. “She was right,” Brennan continued. “You’re the real Booth.”

Booth continued to look at her. “I have no idea what that means, and I don’t think I want to, but thanks, Bones,” he told her. “I think that’s a compliment.”

“It is,” she affirmed.

“Should we go back inside?” he asked her, standing up.

“I thought you needed time,” she said.

“No,” Booth said taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. “I think I’m good.”

Brennan turned back towards the bar, but Booth didn’t let go of her hand. “Booth, what—?”

He pulled her into a hug, and the two of them stood on the sidewalk for a long moment. Brennan thought about her own family, and how hard it was to have them gone. Maybe it was just as hard when they were there. She wished she could do something, but she didn’t know what. Instead she hugged him tighter, and hoped it was enough.

“Thanks, Bones,” he said when he eventually let go.

“But I didn’t—”

He put his hand over her mouth. “Trust me, you did.”

Brennan smiled. That was good enough for her. He put his arm around her shoulder and they walked back into the bar. Together. 


End file.
